De Blasio: Democrats want 'real Democrats' running for president — not Michael Bloomberg

Then-mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2013 ta New York City Hall. (Bebeto Matthews / AP)

This mayor doesn’t think that mayor is the right guy to run for president.

Mayor de Blasio said Thursday that his predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, isn’t “what Democrats are looking for right now” in a presidential candidate.

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Bloomberg, a billionaire who served as mayor for 12 years, has said he is considering a presidential run and this week changed his party affiliation to a Democrat. It’s a return to a party he was members of for years — before becoming a Republican to run for mayor in 2001, and then eventually becoming an independent.

“Democrats are looking for real Democrats more than ever — you certainly saw it in this state with the rejection of the IDC,” de Blasio said of the breakaway group of Democrats who ran the State Senate with Republicans. “I just don’t think Democrats are going to be attracted to someone who left our party 20 years ago and now has just come back.”

And while being ridiculously wealthy works to a person’s advantage in most instances, de Blasio argued that with an increasing focus on income inequality, Bloomberg was not quite the right messenger for the party.

“Donald Trump very cleverly figured out how to tap into that in the 2016 elections, its part of why he got elected, but I think more and more Americans understand that a lot of millionaires and billionaires have laughed all the way to the bank, and I doubt they want to elect another billionaire after the experience they’ve just had,” de Blasio said.

Still, he gave Bloomberg credit for taking on Trump — from his speech against him at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 to more recent efforts to fund Democratic candidates for office.

“In terms of his response to President Trump, I want to give him some real credit — he has been consistently willing to stand up to Trump and put a lot of resources into the effort to stop the excesses of the Trump administration,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio noted he and his predecessor agree on some issues and disagree on others — and there was certainly no love lost between the two in de Blasio’s 2013 mayoral bid, when he ripped Bloomberg on everything from stop-and-frisk to his education policies.